In a bid to connect passengers and the general public with digital systems, the national transporter is continuing to extend the WiFi facility at far-flanged stations.
The first railway station with which the Indian Railways started its journey of providing Wi-Fi facility was that in Mumbai in January 2016, said the statement, adding that a railway station in Midnapore of West Bengal was the 5000th station and yesterday it reached the 6,000 mark with the Hazaribagh Town railway station.
These efforts by the Indian Railways are part of the government’s Digital India Program which aspires to fill the digital gap between rural and urban people in terms of internet access and connectivity.
With this initiative, it could greatly increase the rural digital footprint along with enhancement of user experience.
Provision of Wi-Fi facilities at Railway stations on self sustainable basis with no cost to the Railways, said the Ministry, adding this facility was provided with the help of RailTel, a PSU under Ministry of Railways. This task was carried out in partnership with Google, DOT (under USOF), PGCIL and Tata Trust.
As on May 19, state-wise WiFi facility at stations are as below:
- Andhra Pradesh- 509 stations
- Arunachal Pradesh- 3 stations
- Assam- 3 stations
- Bihar- 384 stations
- Chandigarh- 5 stations
- Chhattisgarh- 115 stations
- Delhi- 27 stations
- Goa-20 stations
- Gujarat- 320 stations
- Haryana- 134 stations
- Himachal Pradesh- 24 stations
- Jammu & Kashmir- 14 stations
- Jharkhand- 217 stations
- Karnataka- 335 stations
- Kerala- 120 stations
- Madhya Pradesh- 393 stations
- Maharashtra- 550 stations
- Meghalaya- 1 station
- Mizoram- 1 station
- Nagaland- 3 stations
- Odisha- 232 stations
- Punjab- 146 stations
- Rajasthan- 458 stations
- Sikkim- 1 station
- Tamil Nadu- 418 stations
- Telangana- 45 stations
- Tripura- 19 stations
- Uttar Pradesh- 762 stations
- Uttarakhand- 24 stations
- West Bengal- 498 stations